Progress Thread '88 GT Hell Horse - All over the place

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Cut your oil filter open and separate the inner filter "pleated" part. It's a mess, and not easy to do, but once you get it to where you can open those pleats, they'll be the tell tale....if they're as full of metal bits as your fingers are showing, you're having a "come apart" in the works.
You'll have to tear it apart after that.
 
I plan on pulling the engine this weekend, and agree one of the first steps is going to be to pull the oil filter. Lets see what we find in there 1st before tearing into the bottom end.
 
Yes it does, however you do not want that active for weeks at a time if the car is stored. The dash will go into sleep mode and restart instantly with zero wait time after the first initial boot up of the day.

What's the power draw on it when it's asleep? I wouldn't think it would be all that high given the architecture.

Or a hibernate mode for when it isn't re-awoken for long periods? I'd think that even restoring from hibernate would be faster than a full boot.
 
They don't have a larger power draw but there could be multiple issues being left on all the time. I built an in-between that puts the computer to sleep once ignition is turned off then after 30 minutes of inactivity it's activates the shutdown sequence.

If it see the ignition again before the 30 minutes it turns back on. This makes it so it doesn't turn on/off all the time and for quicker reconnection time.

If you set your trigger source being the door or dome light the dash would be on by the time you start the car. All new cars do this as well, which is why you see "splash screens" which is nothing more than a video playing while the computer is booting up and checking everything.
 
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Sorry guys for the delay in progress, but didn't get to work on pulling the engine as planned. I was making further progress on the 12.3 Digital Dash custom enclosure. It was time to start printing, but with any R&D it needs some tweaks to the model. The prints are coming out nicely with the changes making it easier to assemble. The plan is to get a final print done this week, so I can assemble it all together to fit in the car.

I did get the Explorer upper intake's TB opening hogged out to 70mm, and smoothed out some of the casting bosses inside as well. Need to work on gasket matching the rest of the ports on the upper and lower intake. Then I can plug up the PCV valve opening, since I will be running vents on both the valve covers to a catch can.
 
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So I was able to get the engine out today as planned. I did cut open the oil filter like Mike said and there is only a small amount of metal in the oil. I am really hoping I caught everything early. So I have the engine on the stand and the oil pan off to drip everything to be flipped over tomorrow. I will be pulling the rear most main to check the bearing and see what it looks like along with the rod caps.

I am hoping it was just the rocker that was rubbing on the valve cover that caused the metal in the oil. Only way to find out is to check the bearings. Still thinking of pulling the heads as I still don't know what heads there are since they have no markings to research.

Also a bit of bad news is that I was told the engine was a 331 and it's not. It clearly has a Ford stamped crank in it so I bet it's just a plain 306.

Currently thinking to just replace the bearings if needed, replace the oil pump since I have a new one (Does the oil pump make the oil pressure?) Due to the lower oil pressure when hot. Also take the heads off and rebuild them with new seals and lap the valves for good deal. Figured this would be a good idea for the plans of the 76mm turbo that's being put on this engine.

Here is the pictures currently:

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Sorry guys not much to report today as it was my birthday so I had to do birthday things like all you can eat shrimp yummm. I did get to work in the garage some, but just little things like take the lower intake off and strip it down, take off the headers, and clean the upper and lower intake to be sold later.

I read somewhere in here that oven cleaner is good at cleaning baked on oil. That stuff is the s*** and need to get another can to finish. This intake has 15 years of crap baked on and it looks almost new now. I will get pictures after the cleaning process and before the repainting.
 
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I like the mtn climbin rope that has been doubled, tripled, and maybe quadrupled......

" Chain?!!! I don't need no stinkin' chain!!, I got me some mountain climbin rope......it's like spider string!"

Why thank you Mike... The chain that I had was really f**in big and long, so I decided to use the climbing rope that worked perfectly around the header tubes. Yes, it is for sure quadrupled and zipped tied if you look closely so it didnt slide around.

This is what you get when you live up in the mountains like I do :)
 
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Well, I have some great news in my eyes, but no pictures for you yet :hide:

I have completed the 12.3" Digital Dash this weekend after a couple final adjustments. The entire enclosure is built with the computer box wired, and I tested it for operation last night. This thing is absolutely awesome as it fits literally side-to-side of the stock instrument cluster bezel. I designed it so that you can install the factory bezel on the dash and it drops right in the factory location.

This screen is HUGE using up all the real estate, so will be able to show any gauge possible while making it easy to make tuning changes with this bigger screen. I will be getting some pictures of it tonight for you guys.
 
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Slowly but surely I am making additional progress on the latest Digital Dash. I am now in the testing/fitment stage of the project, which provide a couple additional modifications to the bezel. The bezel needed to be trimmed on the left side due to the dimmer switch coming in contact with the bezel. I also decided to not use the factory bezel, and spaced the screen further forward so its not as far back. I will be printing the (2) sides and the bottom to match the factory bezel.

Here is a picture of the current installation:

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Worked on the side and bottom cover like the factory bezel. I have it modeled up but still need to slice it in half to fit the printer and add the screw holes to mount it from behind.
 
I did make some pretty good progress on the dash. The bezel surround fits and looks awesome IMO. It has the factory look that I was going for. I now have both sides printed and needed to reprint the bezel again for the screws bosses and additional length on the left side mount screw boss.

Did anyone ever notice that there factory instrument cluster doesn't mount level left to right?

I added 5mm additional to the left side over the right to level it out.

Sorry for the dark pictures doing it at night. I should have better pictures for everyone tomorrow when I have it all printed and remounted to the dash.

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All pieces finished printing this morning. I reassembled the Digital Dash with the completed new bezel for installation in my red mustang. Im using it as my test vehicle before it gets installed in my black mustang.

Everything fits perfectly!!!!!

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Well sorry guys not very much eventful happening this week. I ran into issues with China and the programmer used for the LCD screen. I was trying to flash a new firmware to correct a couple issues that I found, but all is well now after some trial and error do to terrible instructions and English translations that they provide. I was able to get it working so I can move to retesting the screen tomorrow.
 
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I was able to flash the new firmware that was given to me, but they missed on of the items I requested to be turned off. I am now waiting on them to get me a new firmware to flash. I also was able to reduce the boot-up time a little bit more to around 32-35 seconds, but the computer boot-up is down to 12ish seconds. It just takes 20ish seconds for TunerStudio to load. I also changed out the remote desktop application from TeamViewer over to Any Desk which seems to be a lot better product.

Lastly, while waiting on additional parts to print I started to work on the engine breakdown a little more. Nothing major so no pictures, but took off the motor mounts and Alternator/Bracket/Tensioner combo. I was mainly cleaning up the garage getting ready to pull the heads, water pump, and timing cover next.
 
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